The Iranian regime’s Expediency Council has not yet declared its decision over whether to adopt the Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) legislation. Since the one-year deadline for this organization was expired on January 21, the assignment of this bill related to the work of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) should be considered finished.
According to the regime’s laws, if the mullahs’ Expediency Council cannot make a final decision on the case after a year, then the Guardian Council’s opinion in rejecting the CFT will be valid, therefore the CFT will no longer be considered as law. This is the same process as for the Palermo convention.
In addition to the regime’s infightings over the adoption of this bill in the Parliament, Guardian Council and ultimately the Expediency Council, the regime’s absolute deadlock and emerging crises prevent it from ratifying the FATF.
#Iran Regime Still Won’t Conform to the #FATF Requirements
Making Europe’s financial mechanism called INSTEX, available to Iran is conditioned upon the regime in #Tehran conforming to the Financial Actions Task Force (FATF) money laundering standards.https://t.co/LYNc6HOHEQ pic.twitter.com/SHWsgM1Rfq— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 10, 2019
Joining the FATF and specifically adopting its main bills, the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo Convention) and the Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT), are among those conditions that regime is not able to accept, despite its dire economic situation.
#Iran Regime's #FATF Division Developshttps://t.co/9GuwrImWIR pic.twitter.com/jxkVyJvzS7
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 24, 2019
FOR THE REGIME, CFT IS WORSE THAN THE JCPOA
The regime’s most significant problem with adopting the CFT is the obstacles that CFT imposes on the clerical regime in support of terrorist groups. The regime describes its proxy terrorist groups as “Islamic Resistance” and it needs their presence to preserve its so-called “national authority” or rather the regime’s security.
Mohammad Sadegh Larijani, head of the regime’s Expediency Council, in an interview with the state-run Vatan daily described the CFT convention as “worse than the JCPOA,” referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with world powers. He stated it is “far more dangerous” than the previous deal.
“If you ask me personally what I think, I say Palermo and the CFT are extremely dangerous for national security, especially the CFT, which is much more dangerous.”
On January 11, Siroos Borna, a member of the regime’s parliament, in an interview with the state-run Iranian Diplomacy news agency stated that the reason for the regime adopting FATF is to avoid stopping its funding of “the groups that they [western governments] consider terrorists.”
While referring to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force, as the regime’s military lever abroad to continue its policies via export of terrorism, Borna said: “One of our major obstacles in adopting the CFT is that if we do so we should immediately stop funding the Quds Force…… this is tantamount to self-sanctioning.”
CFT TRAP
The Iranian regime’s incapability to adopt the CFT represents the deadly impasse that the regime has been trapped in. It also demonstrates that the export of terrorism abroad and domestic oppression are vital for the regime. These are its pillars of existence; the collapse of any of them would lead to the regime’s downfall. The Iranian Resistance has emphasized this fact for many years. Accordingly, the confusion of the regime in adopting the CFT should be examined in this context.
The mullahs’ regime is indeed at a dead-end, and time is the regime’s worst enemy. The nationwide Iran protests in November, with over 1500 martyrs, the incessant uprising in Iraq and the elimination of Qassem Soleimani, chief of the Quds Force, have absolutely changed the situation for the regime. The time of its downfall has come. This will be fulfilled by the Iranian people and their organized resistance movement.
